Getting some Eichi, or Wisdom, from macro monster @horomariobro

Zach Blass

Within the watch community, you will hear the phrase “in the metal” a fair bit. With some watches it is as simple as paying a quick visit to an authorised dealer to become more acclimated with a watch. However, not all watches are available to view in-store – and no, this is not a conversation about Rolex. The Eichi II, from Credor, is a watch most people do not have an option of seeing on-demand. It typically hits stores for showings for special events put together in honour of trade fairs or VIP customer gatherings. Thankfully, for those who have not had the fortune of seeing one in person, we have the next best thing: photos and videos from macro maestro @horomariobro.

Andrew McUtchen: Now this one is a very simple one and a very beautiful one. Or seemingly simple, I should say …

@Horomariobro: Definitely. With the Eichi II, I am trying to show three things. One is the dial — I want to show how smooth and white the dial is. The dial is not made of enamel. A lot of people will think it’s an enamel dial, but it’s not, it’s made of porcelain. It’s extremely white.

I actually had a photo in one of my posts of a comparison between a Credor porcelain dial versus a regular Seiko porcelain dial. You see, the Seiko by itself, it looks white, but then if you put it next to the Credor, it looks kind of yellow. It makes a distinction of just how white the Credor is – very, very white. The second part I’m trying to show is the smooth running second hand; it’s very smooth.

Andrew McUtchen: What is the frequency here?

@Horomariobro: A typical 28,800 vph movement is 4Hz. Spring Drive, on the other hand, is 32,768Hz!

Andrew McUtchen: Wow!

@Horomariobro: Yeah, and aside from the seconds sweep, there’s the other thing I’m trying to show – the Credor logo. The logo has two things: one is, I think, it’s free hand-painted, so that’s really crazy. It’s just a guy with a paintbrush, painting it.

Andrew McUtchen: Is there any guide on the dial that he/she/they use as a guide, or is it just literally a blank dial?

@Horomariobro: Well, I cannot say 100 per cent, but I heard that on the dial, there’s some guide for them to do it, but still, he only has a brush, so even if there’s a guide to say, “Okay, draw here” or something, his hand still has to be super steady to draw it …  because it’s really tiny.

Andrew McUtchen: I tried to do this; I went to Franck Muller and I tried to paint some crazy hours numbers, and I got so much respect for dial painters after trying it, because it’s so … because it’s not just applying it, you’ve got to get the … like, if you look at the R here, where this part of the R joins there, there’s a liquid surface tension that he’s engineered so that it continues round on top.

@Horomariobro: Yeah.

Andrew McUtchen: Oh man, it’s mind-blowing.

@Horomariobro: So to me, even if there’s a guide, it’s still unbelievable. Someone can just do it with a brush. So I heard that the craftsman train for three years before they can do this.

Andrew McUtchen: So there’s only one person that does the Credor logos?

@Horomariobro: Yeah. I heard … one person, and then you can see how slick the paint is. So they have to apply several layers to get that slickness.

Andrew McUtchen: And it’s done in one day?

@Horomariobro: Yeah, it’s done in one day. One dial in one day, because he has to paint the Credor logo and also the hour markers. The technique requires them to move so slowly it doesn’t even look like their hand is moving. You can only see it happen if you play a film of them back at a fast rate.

Andrew McUtchen: I see.

@Horomariobro: The hour marker, yeah. And then I also want to show that. Also from the video, you can see the paint still looks wet and you can see the reflection of the hand, as the hand swings over the paint, you can see the … yeah, see the reflection, so I find it very cool to see it.